Movie Review: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) directed by Mamoru Hosoda
Makoto thinks of herself as an ordinary high school girl, neither brainy or stupid, neither athletic or clumsy, usually good luck slightly outweighing the bad. She also enjoys hanging out with her buddies Koutaro (a serious lad who wants to be a doctor like his father) and Chiaki (an exchange student who’s rough around the edges.) But today has been exceptionally bad. She failed a pop quiz, caused a fire in home ec, had an accident in the science room with a mysterious nut, and then her bicycle brakes failed on a steep hill and Makoto flies directly into the path of an oncoming train.
Except that when she opens her eyes, Makoto finds that she instead plowed into a hefty woman shopper several yards up the hill, and the train went by harmlessly. What just happened?
With some guidance from her “Aunt Witch”, an art restorer working for the local museum, Makoto realizes that she’s had a time leap. She works out that she can repeat the process by literally leaping, and promptly starts using this awesome power to eat her favorite dessert whenever she wants, score well on tests, and avoid accidents.
But eventually Makoto discovers that her time leap power is not limitless after all, and it does come at a price. Just because she’s erased certain events happening doesn’t mean she doesn’t remember them, with knock-on effects, and sometimes meddling with the timeline hurts others. Eventually, Makoto finds herself in a heartbreaking situation with no remaining do-overs. What now?
This movie was inspired by a young adult novel of the same title, and it’s implied that “Aunt Witch” is the heroine of that story, now grown up. (It would explain how she knows so much about time leaps!)
As you might expect, Makoto is the kind of person who leaps before she looks, often failing to consider the possible consequences of her actions. She’s also not the type of person who takes precautions, as we see from the faulty brakes. She frequently has trouble sticking the landings for her leaps. But she means well, and tries to bring about the best overall situation for everyone she can.
We slowly learn more about the other characters as well through the repeated days; some are exactly what they seem, while others reveal hidden sides.
Director Mamoru Hosoda uses many of the same production crew as his other movies, most notable in the character designs. It’s a pretty movie, with some painterly effects in the time travel sequences. Like most of Hosoda’s movies, there’s some tearjerking scenes.
Content note: Offscreen deaths, bullying, a couple of bath scenes for Makoto (we never see anything beyond the tops of her breasts.)
Recommended for science fiction fans junior high on up. (Younger viewers will probably enjoy the comedy moments, but get bored by the romance aspects.)
